Stories From Off The Reservation

It has come to my attention, that I haven't written many stories in awhile. I will try to remedy that in this e-mail, although I cannot guarantee that I will be successful.

Bloomfield continues to be the same. We showed one of our investigators the film "Finding Faith in Christ" earlier in the week. This particular investigator always likes to ask a lot of questions, most of which are repeated from week to week... Sigh. But there was one line in the movie that stuck out to her. The Apostle Thomas was explaining that Christ had the ability to perceive the hearts and thoughts of men. After the movie was over, there was a pause.
"So," she asked. "Jesus had mental telepathy?"
We thought the wording was pretty funny.

We were talking to a man this week who was telling us exactly how the reservation is like a different country. In Arizona, at least, the U.S.police cannot cross reservation lines to issue a ticket. One particular person knew that if he could just out-drive the police and get across the boarder, he wouldn't be arrested for a DUI. As soon as he crossed the reservation line, he swung the car around, popped open a beer and stared right at the cop on the other side of the line. This story shows that the "wild west" stereotype is still very much in effect, even years after the typical western cowboy and Indian images we think of. I love hearing stories from the rez!

On a more serious note, we had a wonderful experience at church yesterday. Three of our investigators in Bloomfield came to Sacrament meeting. In our gospel essentials class, we were talking about signs of the second coming, one of which is that the Lamanites would blossom and become a great people. Sometimes I get nervous when the Lamanite issue comes up around the Navajo people I teach, but this topic ended up being amazing!

One of our investigators told us that his grandfather was a medicine man. He and his cousins would sit around their grandfather and listen to him preach. He remembers his grandfather telling them as children, about the latter days, about desolation and famine and other things. But the thing that gave me goose bumps was the fact that his grandfather told him that the day would come when they would all need to join a white man's church.

Our ward mission leader was in the class with us and said "Read 1 Nephi 8. In it, you will read about Lehi, who is another one of your grandfathers. He is begging you to come to the tree of life and partake of the fruit. And after you are baptized you can do the temple work for your own grandfather. He is up their just waiting for you! He is cheering you on!"

I love this part-member family; they both have a strong testimony of the restored gospel and will be absolute power houses in the church.

We also talked about how when the Savior comes the second time, his mission will be different. He won't be here to preach the gospel. He did that the first time and has entrusted that role to the apostles, and also the missionaries in preparation for his return. Now is the time to prepare. Our ward mission leader made that comment. And it hit me. I have a mission to fulfill that the Savior himself came to the earth to perform, but has since been entrusted to us...as members.

We are teaching an investigator who already took the missionary lessons, and wanted to get baptized, before recently moving to New Mexico. She knows everything, and is so eager to move forward! She is in Farmington, along with most of our progressing investigators. So after September 1, I won't get to see her anymore, but it is so nice to teach investigators who are accepting of the doctrine!

That is most of the news from this week. There are a few other silly things that happened, but they probably won't fit into print very well.

Oh. I got an envelope in the mail this week that was missing the card inside. I know that some of my mail gets lost as well...so if I don't respond to letters, I probably haven't received them.

Well. I think that's pretty much everything worthy of an e-mail. I love you all dearly. Have a wonderful week!

Sister Waters